Work & Talks
Overview
Examples of current work, invited talks, and applied experience.
Much of my work happens in practice — analysing systems, supporting implementation, and training people — often in contexts where confidentiality matters. This page gives a snapshot of the work that can be shared.
Talks
Upcoming
Disability Matters — Inclusive Research Cultures Knowledge Exchange — 30 April
Human Factors Underground: Hijack your brain for safety — NAMHO Conference, 21 June 2026
Selected talks
Panelist, National Centre for Resilience — Strengthening the emergency planning system with disabled people (Winter 2025)
EDI training, Scottish Mountain Rescue Conference
Current project
I currently work as a Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh on the Who Cares? project, a research programme exploring disability, policy systems, and organisational practice.
My work focuses on how policies behave in real-world conditions — particularly the implementation gap: the difference between what a policy is designed to do and what actually happens in practice.
In this project, I examine how institutions design and implement disability policy, and how those systems function under everyday pressures such as time constraints, uncertainty, and competing priorities.
Disability policy is often a useful “canary in the coal mine”.
Because it relies on systems working well — communication, coordination, and decision-making — it reveals where systems are under strain, where assumptions break down, and where design does not match reality.
This work involves mapping how policy moves through an organisation:
from formal rules
to procedures
to everyday practice
and identifying where and why that process fails.
The aim is not only to understand these failure points, but to redesign systems so they work reliably in practice — for the people who depend on them.
Practice and applied experience
Alongside research, I have extensive experience in applied casework and organisational support.
I have worked on over 500 cases across areas including:
contracts and employment issues
health and safety
disability and reasonable adjustments
maternity and return to work
absence management
grievance and disciplinary processes
Due to the nature of this work, individual cases are confidential. However, this experience provides a detailed understanding of how systems operate in practice — and where they fail.
And sometimes, it simply means sitting with someone on the hardest day of their working life.
What I do: getting ducks in a row — or sometimes coaxing one to sit still for a photo.
Roles and contributions
Volunteer, Scottish Cave Rescue
Trustee and acting Health & Safety Officer, Nenthead Mines Conservation Society
Member, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee — Mountain Rescue
In practice
Across all of this work, the focus is consistent:
Making systems work in practice, not just on paper.
This is not about choosing between employees and organisations.
A system that works well improves outcomes for everyone.
When systems are clear, usable, and designed for real conditions, everyone wins.
That is the standard I work to: things should work, and people should be better off because they do.